Jobs...

This administration keeps telling us about creating jobs for the mass of unemployed.
The only jobs that they can "create" are government jobs; and that's by expanding the government.
Jobs are created by businessmen, companies and corporations...not the government.
As of this posting, there are over three million (3,000,000+) job openings in the private and public sector.   Most of these jobs have specific requirements.   The problem is that there aren't enough qualified workers to fill these jobs.
Since this most recent generation has chosen to either go to college or drop out, the qualified labor pool has drastically shrunk.   A major complaint from H.R. at many companies is that even the college graduates have poor or no communication or math skills.   Their resumes are filled with grammar and spelling errors as well emphasizing nonsense about themselves.   As far as passing a basic arithmetic test, the majority fail in this area also.
In addition, so few of these applicants have trained in any of the labor or production arts.
I remember when I was teaching Film & TV at a Community College, all the students wanted to be producers or directors.   No one wanted to be a stage manager, a camera operator, a lighting director, etc.
Now we see our colleges filled with students majoring in "hobbies" such as Theater Arts, Women's Issues, Music Appreciation, etc.   Yes, some are studying Law and Engineering, but they are a small fraction of most student bodies.   Regardless, more than half of the college graduates in recent years, have difficulty with simple addition or multiplication as well as written and verbal communication.
Now we are faced with a shortage of people to work in our factories, our companies and our local businesses.   For many of these jobs, it could take a year or two to become proficient.   Employers are not willing to operate as a school to train people, put in an investment of time and money to train someone to only see them leave for another job.
As far as the "dumbing down of America", the fault lies in several places.
The first being the family itself.   Fewer parents put in any time, effort or interest in their children's education on a daily basis.
Second is the teachers themselves.   There are highly qualified teachers in the school system; however the system is filled with unqualified teachers, kept on because of the power of the Teacher's Unions.
Third is the student themselves.   They are so distracted with all of the technology available that there is less time in their lives to actually pursue an education.    They would rather play video games, tweet, text, blog, etc.
And of course, let's not forget the dropouts.   These are not necessarily dumb kids; they've just never been motivated or inspired.
So, there you have it.   Lottsa jobs, lottsa unemployed, lottsa unqualified workers.   Even with a solution, it could take another generation to solve this problem.